Fort a winner in nationwide contest by the Idaho Potato Commission

A Red Oak Fareway employee was one of only a handful of entrants to take first place in a recent nationwide contest.
Tony Fort, Red Oak Fareway’s produce manager, joined countless retail produce departments, more than ever before, in the 35th annual Idaho® Potato Lovers Display contest. Idaho Potato Commission Vice President of Retail Ross Johnson broke down the numbers.
“From the 136 Honorable Mention awardees to the three television sweepstakes winners and their category managers, this year we had an amazing number of even more amazing Idaho® potato displays,” Johnson said. “The Idaho Potato Commission was delighted to award cash and prizes to honor our retailers’ creativity, including six luxury television sets as the sweepstakes grand prizes. Tony Fort was one of only three winners in this nationwide contest for this year.”
Johnson added the contest is the longest running event in the history of produce.
“This year will be our 36th year of running potato lovers month. We get together as a team and we judge entries from all over the country. We had more than 2,000 people that entered into our contest this year, which goes to show how much we loved Tony’s display, since he was one of only three winners in the contest,” Johnson advised
The Idaho® Potato Lovers Display Contest is the only contest that awards every entrant for participating. This year, every qualified entrant received an exclusive mini portable 4K projector that allows direct projection from an iPhone or Android device, including Fort.
Retailers competed with other same-size stores in one of three categories: 1-5 cash registers, 6-9 cash registers, or 10+ cash registers. Fort was the winner in the 6-9 cash registers category. Within each store category, entrants were eligible to win cash and prizes.
In-store displays were required to incorporate fresh Idaho® potatoes (bag, bulk or both) with a clear label showing the Idaho name and the “Grown in Idaho®” seal. The display also had to use IPC 2026 special themed point-of-sale materials: two double-sided Idaho® Potato Lovers logo display signs, one large and two small double-sided signs with an appetizing photo, and six inflatable Mylar™ Idaho® potato balloons. Displays were required to be in the store’s produce section for at least one week between Feb. 1 and March 28, 2026.
The Category Manager Match Program awarded equivalent prizes to corporate category managers for stores that qualified for a 1st through 5th place prize or the sweepstakes television set.
Fort recently celebrated 37 years of employment, joining the store in Aug. 1 of 1989. Even before coming to Fareway, he spent eight years working at the former Jim’s super Value for eight years.
““When the Super Value closed, I came over here. The management at Fareway had approached me about coming here actually. Some of the workers that started at Fareway knew me from the Super Value, and when Super Value closed, they said that I was looking for a job, and so the Fareway management at the time interviewed me and hired me,” Fort explained. “During that time I had heard a lot of good things about Fareway, including how good their customer service was, that it was a nice clean store, good work, and easy management to work with. I can tell you that what I heard in 1989 has proved true throughout all these years.”
While he currently serves as produce manager, Fort said he’s worn several hats since he initially started with Fareway.
“I started in frozen foods when I first started working here. From there, I went back into dairy, then came to produce, and then just kind of went back and forth between the grocery, frozen, and dairy departments for awhile, before I became the dedicated produce manager for more than 10 years. This is my favorite department, so I really enjoy it,” Fort said.
Fort added one of his favorite parts of working in produce is being able to maintain the freshness.
“You have to stay on top of everything every day, because unlike a lot of other grocery items, like canned goods, produce has a smaller shelf life and it’s very perishable. Things can go down quickly if the product isn’t the best, or if it’s not selling as fast. You constantly have to go through things, check for spoilage, and keep it as fresh as you can. You have to keep doing that all the way until your next truck, you just keep on rotating, keeping things fresh, keeping things great for the customers,” commented Fort.
In an age where many people tend to hop from job to job, Fort said he’s stayed at Fareway for all these years for many reasons.
“I’ve enjoyed the kind of work I do in the grocery business. I enjoy working with people, I like helping customers, being able to talk with them and work with different people. I’ve always been treated well at Fareway, and time since I’ve started here has gone so quickly. My plan remains, when the time is right, to retire from here,” said Fort. “The thing I most enjoy is working produce. It’s my absolute favorite place to be.  Since I spend a lot of time talking to customers, I’ve gotten to know some of them from the time I started to work here all the way down to this day. So you get a friendship built up with different customers, and you get to know their likes and preferences so that you kind of make sure that that product is always there for them. I try to do what I can to provide for them so that they can count on me to get what they want and try to do my part to make their experience here enjoyable.”
In addition to the joy of winning the award, Fort said he appreciates all the customers that come in and the friendships he’se been able to develop down through the years.
“I’ve gotten to know different people down through the years, workers-wise. Everybody’s been really friendly here. Down through the years, there’s been people that I’ve worked with. Then their kids came in, so it’s been a full-circle experience,” commented Fort.
Johnson said that he appreciates the opportunity to highlight the efforts of people such as Fort.
“This is one of our favorite things to do: recognize frontline employees like yourself that have the passion to be able to do this day in and day out. It’s an honor for us to be able to come out to Red Oak visit you and present you with this. We thank you for what you do,” commented Johnson.
Fort, who has entered the contest several times in the past, said he is thrilled to be a winner this year, and that he was able to create a winning display.
I haven’t been able to stop smiling since I found out I won. As for my display, I didn’t have a particular theme I was going with, I just got all the items together that I needed to build it, and moved things around and tried different set-ups until I could establish the look I wanted it to have when I got it done,” Fort advised.
Johnson said there were several factors that stood out that made Fort this year’s winning entrant in his category.
“We look at all the entries physically in a room, me and three other people. There were elements that he incorporated, like a truck, that really stood out. Also, the product is part of the deal too. He has to incorporate the product with his own product and the proper signage we sent out and Tony really did that well. He really operated on all cylinders,” explained Mills.
While Fort was a winner for the contest this year, Johnson said it won’t preclude him from further competition.
“Tony can keep entering every year and keep on trying to bring the prize home. We’ve settled on a theme for next year.  “Last year was focused on like drive-in movies. This year, we’re going to focus more on volcanoes because what makes Idaho potatoes famous is our volcanic soil that we have there. Yellowstone has a big volcano which is dormant, thankfully. But, we’ve got a lot of volcanic ash in our soil that really gives our Idaho potatoes a unique flavor and consistency that makes them stand out from other potatoes. That’ll to kind of get the juices flowing for Tony on his display for this upcoming year. Volcano is really going to be our focus,” stated Johnson. “The contest will again run from Feb. 1 to March 28, 2027. Initially, the contest was only held for the month of February, but we made it a 60-day contest as some retailers get busy with Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl. This gives them plenty of leeway to execute their own display for the contest.”
Fareway Store Manager Kerry Carlson said that Fort is a true face of Fareway and who Fareway is, practically serving as the store’s greeter, as Fort in the produce department is one of the first faces they see.
“Everybody looks for him, everybody wants to have a conversation with him. He’s just a great guy and we appreciate all that he does for us,” Carlson stated.